By Fathima Zanaida
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (TheSportsNEXT) September 19, 2012: England bowlers pulled up their socks to defend a low total against Pakistan in their final warm-up match ahead of their ICC World Twenty20 2012 (ICCWT20) campaign.
Pakistani batsmen once again failed to live up to the expectations and couldn’t complete what should have been an easy victory after bowlers bowled England out for only 111 runs.
Batting first at P Sara Oval in Colombo, England team was bowled out for mere 111 from 19.3 overs, thanks to another show of brilliance with the ball by the world’s top bowler Saeed Ajmal who captured four wickets for only 14 runs from his four overs.
England innings was resurrected to some extent by all-rounder Luke Wright (38 from 36 – 4 fours) while none of the other batsmen could make an impression.
Craig Kieswetter (10 from 17 – 1 six) and Alex Hales (3 from 3) were back in the pavilion well inside the fifth over and Eoin Morgan (10 from 14) did spend some time in the middle, it was Luke Wright who showed real character to keep England afloat.
Jonny Bairstow (14 from 19), JC Buttler (15 from 15 – 3 fours) and Samit Patel (8 from 7 – 1 four) came up with rather handy knocks but Saeed Ajmal never really allowed the England innings to shape into something astounding.
Apart from Saeed Ajmal, left-arm off-spinner Raza Hasan also impressed as he took two wickets for 16 runs from his four overs while Shahid Afridi regained some of his lost touch with a spell of four over for 0/21. Imported all-rounder Yasir Arafat once again proved an expensive option for Pakistan as he gave away 21 runs from his 2.3 overs but he did manage to pick up two wickets. Another fast bowler Mohammad Sami continued to face indifferent future as he went for 18 for one from his three overs.
Pakistan mostly used this second warm-up match for experimentation as they inducted Asad Shafiq at two-down position where he looked good before gifting his wicket away.
Looking at Pakistan’s batting order, one get the impression that skipper Mohammad Hafeez wanted to give those batsmen the chance to spend some time in the middle who didn’t get an opportunity against India in their first warm-up game.
Hero of the India-encounter, Kamran Akmal came to bat at number nine position which clearly shows how much Pakistan wanted to test their batsmen in this match.
Pakistan innings started with a disaster of yet another duck for their skipper Mohammad Hafeez but Imran Nazir (14 from 14 – 3 fours) and Nasir Jamshed (16 from 12 – 3 fours) stabilized the innings but both went back into the pavilion at the team’s total of 41 runs from 6.1 overs, with Pakistan still requiring 71 runs from 83 balls.
While Asad Shafiq (20 from 20 – 2 fours) put his head down for some time, Umar Akmal (10 from 22 – 1 four) completely looked out of sort and lost his wicket after failing to control his instincts.
Another hero of the first warm-up, Shoaib Malik (7 from 11) failed to replicate on his performance while Shahid Afridi (5 from 8 – 1 four_ recorded yet another failure with the bat.
It all rested on Abdul Razzaq’s (12 from 18 – 1 four) shoulders but lack of international action did show in his batting as his struggling knock ended by Dake Dernbach before Kamran Akmal (2 from 2) failed to force the issue. Yasir Arafat (2 not out from 2) and Mohammad Sami (1 not out from 1) remained unbeaten but Pakistan could only manage 96 for nine from their 20 overs, thus falling 15 runs short of the target.
Pakistan needed 20 runs to win from the final over but Jake Dernbach made sure that he stays on the target and only gave away four runs besides taking two more wickets.
For England, Danny Briggs captured three wickets for 15 runs while Jake Dernbach took three wickets for 14 runs. Skipper Stuart Broad also chipped in with figures of two for 12 runs from his four overs.
One must highlight the poor playing conditions at P Sara Oval in Colombo where the pitch which had on offer awkward bounce, spin and swing all available never best-suited for a Twenty20 International match as all the excitement of the shortest version died under the dampness of the track.
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